The past week included a major episode of The 100, the season finale of Agent Carter, and more news including another addition to the upcoming Star Trek series. Between traveling this week and a tremendous amount of political news, I have limited time and will leave everything beyond The 100 and Star Trek for next week.

Along with many reviewers, I had been dissatisfied with how this season of The 1oo began. With the most recent episode, Thirteen, there has finally been tremendous payoff for following the various story lines this season. Major spoilers ahead. The episode tied the two major story lines together, had flash backs which revealed major information as to how the world we know was destroyed and how the world we see on The 100 was created, and the death of a major character.

Executive producer Jason Rothenberg provided interviews with major media as well as genre blogs. Here are some excerpts from a few interviews which shed more light on the episode and where the series is going:

Rothenberg: “When we started the season, I had these two sort of separate big stories… I really wanted there to be a point at which the two collided. In terms of grounder mythology, back in season two, Lexa and Clarke had this conversation about reincarnation and how in the grounder world, that’s how leaders were chosen. I didn’t want to just say that was not true, but I also didn’t want to say it was a real sort of spiritual reincarnation, so I then sort of struck upon this notion of a technological reincarnation. Once I struck upon that idea, then I kind of knew that in order to deal with reincarnation, you would have to die first.

“So it became this incredibly sad thing because I love Alycia Debnam-Carey. She’s incredible, but we definitely also were factoring in the idea that we have an actor that was starring in another show. As it was, I had to sort of beg borrow and steal to get her for this season as much as we were lucky enough to get her. So in weighing all those factors, it just became clear.”

By the way, I have to say, this is The 100, and nobody is safe. We say this all the time, but it’s true. Clarke killed Finn, Wells died, I mean there is nobody in this show that is safe.

E! News: How much of a reincarnation is it then? How much of Lexa’s “spirit” really will carry over to the next commander?

Rothenberg: “A lot of the storytelling going forward revolves around the flame, which is the tech that came out of Lexa’s head at the end of the episode. The idea as far as what we know in terms of what’s been in the show up until that point is that the spirit of the commanders are in the flame, and if in fact that’s true, then you could imagine that the spirit of Lexa is in the flame, but that is something we’ll reveal or not going forward.”

E! News: Will we be spending a lot of time on the conclave and choosing the next commander?

Rothenberg: “The conclave, as Titus says at the end of 7, is on, it’s beginning, and we’ll get to understand what that means and who participates and the winner of the conclave would be the next person to receive the flame, so you have to tune in next week, essentially, or later in the season, to find that out.”

E! News: What are Clarke’s next steps after what she just saw?

Rothenberg: “Her heart is broken, and yet she needs to balance and find a way as always to go forward as an important leader of her people. Right now, they’re locked in that room. But if you think about politically what the death of Lexa does is throws any sort of sense that Skaikru is going to be protected even if they get rid of Pike out the window, because who knows what the next commander’s going to want to do. Is the next commander going to follow Lexa’s nonviolence path, the blood must not have blood path, or is the next commander going to do what Titus wanted all along, which is to wipe them out? And this is something that Clarke is now going to have to navigate from Polis when the story picks back up.”

E! News: What was the significance to you to flash back and tell the end-of-the-world story now?

Rothenberg: “I love origin stories, and on some level, this is the origin story of the series. We see how the world ended, which is what led to the formation of the ark in the flashback story of this episode, which is what led to where our heroes came from, obviously. But it’s also the story of the second AI and you know, the flame, which now we know is that second AI, and Becca created it to try to right the wrong of her first creation, A.L.I.E., and it does set up the confrontation going forward between the two AIs. A.L.I.E. wants that flame, and right now anyway, we know where it is. It’s not in Clarke’s possession yet…I’m about to give away the next episode and I don’t want to do that, but A.L.I.E. wants that flame and will soon figure out where it is.”

TVLINE | Let’s start with Lexa’s death… The 100 has always been fearless about killing off major characters to serve its story. Was that the case with Lexa?
There’s never a unanimity of opinions in a writers’ room if it’s a good writers’ room. Everybody argues and tries to make the case for what they think is the best story. Then, as showrunner, I end up deciding what happens. In this case, though, there wasn’t a lot of debate about it. Lots of factors went into this, No. 1 being that Alycia Debnam Carey is a series regular on [Fear the Walking Dead]. I had to beg, borrow and steal to get AMC to allow us to use her for as many episodes as we did, and I knew I was going to lose the use of her after Episode 7. It’s a laborious process to use an actor that’s working on another show, so that had a big part to do with our thinking this season.

TVLINE | I have to assume her death will serve a larger purpose.
It already is. We have these two big stories — the A.I. story and the Grounder’s political story — but there was no unifying moment, nothing that connected them. When I came up with the idea of a technological reincarnation as a way to explain the Grounder mythology, that the Commander is a reincarnated position, that was something everyone got excited about. You can’t tell a story about reincarnation, technological or otherwise, without that person dying first. As hard as it was to do, because of how much I love the character and the actor, it seemed to be the best choice.

TVLINE | Can you say whether or not we’ll see Lexa again in some form?
I won’t say whether this is the last time we’ll see her or not, but there is a flame inside the Commander’s head, which contains the memories and/or minds of [the previous] Commanders. Lexa said in Episode 6 that the other Commanders speak to her in her dreams, and now she’s among those Commanders in the flame if this technology is to be believed. After seeing the way it comes out of her head in Episode 7, we should think it’s probably a technology that is to be believed. That’s my way of saying that anything is possible.

Nerdist: Brace yourself, I’ve got a lot of questions! Who were those people that came out to see Becca when she landed on Earth in what would later become Polis? What was in that black liquid she was injecting into her arms that helped her survive the radiation on Earth? She’s the first nightblood, right? Ah!

Jason Rothenberg:[Laughs] I think that the end of this episode, the dots are there to be connected to how the world is what it is right now in terms of who were the nightbloods and how being a nightblood [was] something that became hereditary. Who were those first people that came out to meet Becca when she steps out of the pod? On the wall of the temple in Polis, Murphy points to the people around this woman figure on the wall, and Titus said it was Becca Pramheda, the First Commander. Titus may not have called her that, Becca Pramheda, in that episode, but that’s who she will become known. She’s got the Commander’s jacket on, right? She’s taken with her the blood treatment that she’d been giving herself which turned her own blood black as the first nightblood. She’s taken all of that with her, and as she’s surrounded by these people that we know to be the first nightbloods, I think the dots are there to be connected. Certainly some of our incredibly thorough fans will not miss out on the opportunities to connect it all together.

How much do the rest of the Grounders know about the “sacred symbol” and its origins? Is it a secret only kept by the Flamekeeper and Commander?

That’s a good question. I love the idea that technology in our world today becomes mythology and spirituality in the Grounder world 100 years from now. What is a corporate logo to us – the infinity sign that Murphy told Titus is a corporate logo and he’s praying to garbage – ultimately, over 100 years, this thing has been imbued with a different meaning. Yes, the Flamekeeper is keeping the secrets. He alone knows what happens in the temple during the ascension ceremony when the next Commander is given the Flame. But I don’t even think the Commanders themselves are aware that it’s an A.I. This is a story that we will tell more of going forward. We will answer those questions. But it is a bit of a secret thing, what happens inside the temple after the conclave, after one of the nightbloods has killed the others and won the right to bear the Flame. They then go into the temple with Titus for the ascension and are given the Flame. Whether or not we see it play out that way, people will have to tune in.

Becca put the “spirit of the commander” a.k.a. A.L.I.E. 2 in her own neck before she came down to Earth. We’ve seen what A.L.I.E. 1 is like, so how does A.L.I.E. 2 compare and how will it affect Becca or any one else that it goes into?

Well, we know someone pretty well on the show who’s had it since the day we met her, and that’s Lexa of course. I think it’s safe to say that – good and bad are words we stay away from on this show, and light and dark – but if A.L.I.E. is the bad guy, and we will discover that there are wrinkles to her story and her motivations and it’s not exactly as it seems, but as Becca says to the Commander in the flashbacks, where A.L.I.E. 1 didn’t understand what it meant to be human, that’s what allowed her to essentially get to what she thought was a better world, a.k.a. wiping out most of the human race. That, to her, was a good answer. Whereas in her follow up, version two, that would never be a possibility because A.L.I.E. 2 understands what it means to be human because she’ll be human herself. She’s going to join a human consciousness. She can’t exist without us. That’s the difference between the two. Therefore I would say, both better and worse, in terms of we will discover that the person who takes the Flame, the Commander, isn’t necessarily changed by it. It just deepens what’s already there. That’s a story we’re going to be telling down the road.

Thanks to Clarke and Lexa’s pillow talk, we now know that seven nightbloods died during Lexa’s ascension. She didn’t want to talk about the eighth nightblood that was there that wasn’t tattooed on her back, though. That seems like it’s going to be an important detail down the line. When will we learn more about that?

Do we ever do anything randomly? [Laughs] So probably there seems to be something planted, and whether or not the tree bears fruit this season or next season, people will have to tune in. But there’s certainly a littlddde mystery around that tattoo, that’s for sure.

There has also been more good news for those of us concerned over whether the upcoming Star Trek series on CBS All Access will be true to the vision of Gene Roddenberry. The Hollywood Reporter reports his son, Rod Roddenberry, will be an executive producer.

CBS’ upcoming Star Trek series has added two more members to its intergalactic crew, with Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth, COO of Roddenberry Entertainment, named as executive producers on the new project.

They will join Alex Kurtzman, Heather Kadin and Bryan Fuller as executive producers on the show, which will debut on CBS in early 2017 before transferring exclusively to CBS’ All Access digital VOD service. News of the addition of Roddenberry and Roth follows Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan‘s Nicholas Meyer joining the show’s writing staff last week.

“Gene Roddenberry, the Great Bird of the Galaxy, left a finely feathered nest for all who love Star Trek to enjoy,” showrunner Fuller said Thursday in a statement. “It is only fitting that Rod Roddenberry and Roddenberry Entertainment join our new Trek adventure to ensure that his father’s legacy of hope for the future and infinite diversity in infinite combinations runs through our tales as Gene Roddenberry intended.”

Roddenberry added, “While I will always be humbled by its legacy and the legions of fans who are its guardians, it’s a genuine honor to be joining a team of imaginative and incredibly capable individuals whose endeavor it is to uphold the tenets of Star Trek’s legacy while bringing it to audiences in a new era and on a contemporary platform.”

In addition to producing the 2011 documentary Trek Nation, Roddenberry served as a consulting producer on the fan-produced Star Trek: New Voyages series released online between 2003 and 2011.